December 2005

Friends,

My screensaver makes me homesick.

Sharyn and I are temporarily living outside Greensboro, North Carolina. It’s just about 60 degrees colder than standing in the shade in Haiti. We are living in a beautiful home surrounded by great people, and we’re part of an active mission-minded church. We were part of the autumn season changes—the second time in about twenty years. Half a lifetime in Haiti with no trees and no seasons might have helped us appreciate it so much. Wish I could learn to appreciate the cold as well.

We were evacuated from Haiti in June due to the civil unrest and particularly the ballooning number of kidnappings and carjackings. It hasn’t improved. Haiti’s elections are set for January, and the hope is that this will be the first step in establishing some security. In the interim, we enrolled in North Carolina A&T, a university with a lot of agricultural heritage. Returning to school has been a challenge. It required a 24/7 mentality and commitment, and we just finished final exams yesterday. Rodney has been taking some agricultural education and environmental education courses. Sharyn took classes to maintain her Pennsylvania counseling license plus computer courses. We both hope and expect what we’ve studied can be applied directly to our work in Haiti.

Because the Haiti elections were postponed twice recently and now just finally seem set for January, the PC (USA) has advised us to plan on staying in school through the Spring 2006 semester. We continue to receive many reports of violence and continual kidnappings and carjackings.

To those planning on visiting Haiti soon, please be aware the church has never before asked us to leave Haiti—even during the violent civil strife of the early 1990s. Each time a missionary or visitor is kidnapped and ransom paid, it becomes worse. Prayerfully ask yourself how you can best help Haiti at this juncture—paying tens of thousands of dollars to hopefully be freed from a ransom situation or supporting an ongoing church organization helping the needy. This has already happened to several people we know personally.

Before leaving Haiti, we were able to make some administrative changes. In our absence the CODEP program is functioning extremely well under the direction of the Haitian leaders we helped train. Summer school had 140 kids and 35 teachers and lasted three months—a glorious success story. Most of the programs continue. School support and scholarships continue. Again this year, CODEP planted over 500,000 trees—trees for building and cooking and holding the soil where it needs to stay.

For a dozen or more years we’ve been working with the moringa tree. It’s sometimes called the “miracle tree of the tropics.” One of the last big projects we began was producing edible oil from the seeds of this tree. It’s a pretty simple process once figured out, and it provides lots of high quality cooking oil for the rural poor. Dozens of pictures of this process and the training events are on my screensaver and they keep drawing me back to the great things that have been accomplished. The pictures also remind me of the work still in progress. And the work that remains to do.

Thank you for being part of it all. And when people ask you, “What’s happening in Haiti?” smile and say with confidence, “Our Haitian church leaders are doing a great job of healing the land, feeding the people, providing water and jobs and schools and hope.”

May we all remember the changes this season has brought to all mankind. Wherever we may be this joyous season, know that the people of Haiti’s CODEP are praying for us all. And not just praying but also actively doing all they can, with your continued help, even in your absence.

Looking forward to meeting you all in Haiti, creating more screensavers and memories.

A blessed Christmas to all,

Rodney & Sharyn

The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 50